UPDATE: The Colorado “Independent” – a left-wing rag bought and paid for by the same donors behind Morse and Giron – spends almost 1400 words today trying to excuse explain away Morse’s sickness comments. If Morse was so clear, then why do his allies need a veritable novel to clarify his comments?

Senate President John Morse and State Senator Angela Giron are suing to pull a Free Colorado TV ad that quotes Morse talking about “cleansing a sickness from our souls” on the Senate floor while he was trashing the gun rights movement for trying to block his bills.

DENVER — With less than two weeks until voters cast ballots in the first two recall elections in Colorado history, both state lawmakers defending their seats are turning to the courts — again.

On Tuesday, an attorney for Senate President John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, and Sen. Angela Giron, D-Pueblo, filed a cease and desist order with Xfinity asking the cable provider to stop airing an ad by a group supporting their recall that offers a misleading and context-free interpretation of something Morse said back in March.

While Stokols may dub the quote misleading, a review of the quote in context shows that Morse was talking about the gun rights movement, not only gun violence, right before he launches into his tirade about “a sickness in our souls.”

Free Colorado clarified their position in a statement, saying:

John Morse is a lousy revisionist historian. In a rambling, angry tirade on the Senate floor, Senator Morse bashed gun owners, gun organizations, and gun dealers and manufacturers, punctuated with his now infamous ‘cleansing a sickness from our souls’ invective. Words have meaning. We encourage the media to play the Morse speech in its entirety, and let the people decide for themselves.

Taking the Morse bait, Stokols fails to mention that, after quoting the RFK quote, Morse expounds on what “cleansing a sickness from our souls” means, as he sees it. Morse rails against gun owners who sent emails and made calls to legislatures, comparing them to criminals.

As if it weren’t obvious enough, Morse goes back to the trough one more time — “sickness”, Morse says after referring to the public outcry from gun owners.

Eli, rewind it and listen to “sicknesses from our souls, and one “sickkkknnnneeeeeees.” Morse can run but he can’t hide.

Democratic Senate President John Morse claimed victory in the state’s overall gun-control debate, even as he conceded the battle grew ugly.

“Cleansing a sickness from our souls doesn’t come easy. It’s gruesome,” Morse said in a short speech announcing the withdrawal of his assault-weapon liability measure.

Morse’s comments punctuated a nasty, drawn-out debate that drew thousands to the state Capitol over recent days. The gun package jammed legislative emails, prompted several gun-supporting businesses to threaten to leave Colorado and left one man facing criminal charges for threatening messages he allegedly sent a Democratic sponsor of some of the bills.

As Ari Armstrong has written on Complete Colorado’s Page Two, Morse precedes his infamous quote decrying the gun industry and those dedicated to gun rights, making it reasonable to assume his next attack encompasses those two groups.

Morse and Giron’s protest is ironic considering they are running ads deceitfully claiming that Republican candidates Bernie Herpin and George Rivera want to rob the birth control right out of ladies’ purses. Despite local leaders’ best efforts to have those deceptive ads pulled, they remain on air.

Conservatives are obviously chomping at the bit for a fight over Morse’s outlandish quote, and the Democratic lawyers seem to be walking right into it. Or maybe they don’t have a choice — maybe this quote is so damaging that Morse backers have to do whatever they can to purge it from the airwaves, you know, like a sickness from our souls. Whichever, it is clear this is a debate recall-supporters want to have.

Matt Russell You're right. Democrats didn't come up with a better way. But people who teach self-defense have. Its called the buddy system. Its 90% effective. That's why the military teaches it, police departments teach it, colleges teach it, self-defense experts teach it, etc., etc. By comparison, several studies show that carrying a gun makes you 4X more likely to be killed with a gun. But its beside the point because none of the legislation that Democrats passed keeps law abiding citizens from carrying a gun. So, again, how is a policy memo written 6 or 7 years ago for campus safety in Colorado Springs relevant to the recall debate?

@ seth ford: it's relevant in that those that support further gun control laws haven't come up with anything better for women to be able to protect themselves in the absence of their right to bear arms.

Never mind. Don't bother tracking it down. I'll just say thanks for the dialogue and your willingness to keep me in business for years to come. Wars, not battles, David. I'm perfectly willing to let you have a Pyrrhic victory if it makes you feel better about the long slog to irrelevance.

1) It isn't an outlier poll. Multiple polls by multiple sources have found 80-83% support for background checks.

2) If you're referring to the fact that 54% of Coloradans oppose "gun control" then you are correct. There's a difference between support for phraseology and support for policy.

3) If your problem is with Representative Fields why isn't she being recalled?

4) I have a Master's Degree in Public Communication with an emphasis on political communication and 12 years of experience in political communication. You doubt that experience at your peril, not mine.

5) I'm happy that you aren't concerned with whether Republicans will be recalled. I agree they should be held accountable. Their entire party will be and, by way of extension, so will this frivolous recall effort.

6) I wasn't aware that recall petitioners stated "many reasons" for the recall effort. If there were "many reasons" maybe they should have been honest about the true purpose of the recall instead of obfuscating it by focusing on phraseology like "gun control."

David Rhodes I sincerely hope, for your sake, that the Koch brothers are willing to spend all their money in Colorado because the lesson if these recalls succeed (at least for politicos) isn't that these legislators didn't listen to their constituents, its that THEY DID and that anyone can be recalled anywhere. The lesson–with Giron, in particular, is that if you can recall her in a solidly Democratic district then Republicans can be unseated as easily in theirs. And believe me when I say there are legislators on your side of the isle who are much more deserving.

David Rhodes It indicates to me that the proponents of the recall are willing to exaggerate, lie, cheat, steal, threaten and obfuscate in order to get their way. The people of both districts should be very upset. They should be upset because the business of the state legislature has been so badly misrepresented by recall proponents. 80-83% of Coloradans support background checks on gun sales. 63% support limits on high capacity magazines. Even more people support keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and other criminals. THAT is what Angela Giron and John Morse voted with their colleagues to do. Even recalls, in statewide polling, are unpopular. If recalls are a sign of the Republican party to come, its a party doomed to shrink into non-existence whether you win or lose. Go for it.

im going to agree with the calls for this seth guy to move to ca, as someone who moved to colorado from there, he would fit in just fine. Recalls happen when you have elected officials who dont go with what their constituents want, furthermore, morses guys are a bunch of thugs. I have a friend in the springs who got called by some telemarketing firm asking him to take his name off the recall petition. Now as someone from california those of you who follow politics may remember in 2004 when we recalled sitting governor Gray Davis. I voted for that recall and didnt get ANY CALLS about it.

Craig Ver Helst You're right, dude. Hiring someone in August indicates a massive conspiracy. You should make a preemptive strike against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to prevent the next Red Dawn. Wait…that was a movie…OR WAS IT???

James Baker I see. So how is a policy memo written long before this past legislative session by the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs relevant to the recall debate or the misogynistic and racist threats made by opponents of common sense public safety laws like background checks on gun sales?

Seth Ford, I believe your birth certificate like I believe the long form certificate that was proven fraurdulent on obama by a digital forensics expert! You are a true liberal there Sethy you spew name calling off the bat!

Matt, I do think Mr. Ford here is confused or at least misguided as to the actual meaning of that word. Us here in "Texas" believe that when a elected official tells you that pissing yourself is an acceptable means to stop rape that they themselves are misogynist. Then again I can imagine Mr. Ford calling for the deaths of NRA members; that include children. While calling for the ban of all weapons and "shoulder things that go up" in the name of "saving us all from ourselves and the children". People like Mr. Ford are well educated in the facts but chose to ignore them while they spin agendas. They want to pick up guns, simple as that. But they refuse to just come out and say it so they back door the truth by coming up with laws that will save us all. Then those laws don't work, so they come up with more anti gun laws, then those laws don't work, and it keeps going until there is no gun in sight, not even the super rich have them. This is their goal although they will say no and call this crazy but the proof is overseas. Mind you I'm not knocking on Mr. Ford, although if he would be honest…… Well, I'm just laying out what everyone already knows.

@ seth ford: I'm sorry, did you just say the state of Texas is full of misogynists? 'Cause I fail to see how a state that _arms_ their women so that they are better able to fend off a larger, stronger assailant intent on rape, murder, or just "plain" violence is a _far_ cry from misogynistic. I would say the misogynists are those that seek to disarm the female gender, and those that advise that women should "soil themselves" as a defense mechanism. I have seen and heard the entirety of the morse quote, and even from over here in New Hampshire it seems to be an accurate description of that statement as "referring to gun owners as a whole".

Morse is an idiot. He pushed for a bill that is not only prohibited by federal law would be found unconstitutional if passed anyway. His lunacy would be no different than holding a local Ford Dealer and Ford Motor Company liable for someone who bought a new Ford car and a week later got drunk and ran over someone. What a joke.

Shawn Jones, your right. Just remember that Morse and Giron will have their fellow travelers and Kool-Aid drinkers monitoring pages like this that are opposed and replying to articles like this with lies and deceit, just like MS Ford did. I intentionally used MS, not Mr. Anyone can make a guess why I did!

Seth Ford – You should move to California. Looking at the posts on you FB profile makes me think you would fit right in over there with the rest of the fanatics who don't know what the people really want. Why are we having the recall elections by the way? Oh that's right, because the people (of CS and Pueblo) want them.